


KIA

by TheMagicMicrobus (CallMeCaptainOrSir)



Series: Peaceful Easy Feeling [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Coping, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Healing, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Male-Female Friendship, Not Steve Friendly, Past Character Death, Pepper Needs a Hug, Pepper Potts Had A Heart, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Thor Gives It To Her, Tony Stark Has A Heart, not team Cap friendly, sort of happy ending?, supportive Thor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 08:18:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13477443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallMeCaptainOrSir/pseuds/TheMagicMicrobus
Summary: Tony found his peace in the desert, now Pepper has to find hers without himA sequel to Drive, Pepper coping with Tony's suicide.





	KIA

**Author's Note:**

> I got a few requests for a sequel, so I finally pulled myself out of my writing slump and did this.
> 
> Not beta read, but I'd love constructive criticism, or a beta reader!

There is a ring on Pepper’s bedside table. She put it on, once, the day of the funeral. It felt like she had wrapped a band of metal around her chest, like she’d strapped a weight to her back and she couldn’t help but wonder if that’s what he had felt. The reactor was heavy, a foot of metal tubing buried in his chest. She wondered what it was like to breath with the weight of the world on your shoulders.

She’d taken it off that night. The ring slid off easily, only a little too big on her thin fingers. Tony’s hands had always been surprisingly delicate. The ring came off easy but it left a black smudge of oil in its place. It smelled like him and she didn’t scrub it off. But she didn’t put the ring back on either.

 

She read the note and then pretended she hadn’t. Gave the speeches they wrote her, signed the press releases. She slept on her side and faced the wall. Wavered between changing the sheets and never washing them again.

She didn’t change the sheets.

She thought about calling the team, but they must have seen the releases. They would come if they wanted to.  Pepper poured a glass of wine, white, and decided to stop thinking.

They didn’t come. She realized she had been waiting, and made herself stop that too. The world kept turning. Kept burning. 

 

_ Iron Man could have stopped that. Iron Man could have saved those lives. Tony could have fixed this. I should have fixed him. _

 

She stopped watching the news.

 

It took a month. Apparently news traveled slowly to Asgard. Thor was so unlike Tony, but he felt safe all the same, and he was patient. He said that he knew what it was to lose a love to battle. She liked that.

 

The papers had said Iron Man was a hero. They had called Tony a monster. They said it was a cop out, an escape from his mistakes or they didn’t mention it at all. After a week, it was like he had never existed. It was hard to mourn a man who had never existed.

 

But people died in battle all the time. The nation honored them, remembered them, they didn’t brush them underneath a rug or place them on an inhuman pedestal. Pepper could learn to mourn a love lost to battle.

**Author's Note:**

> KIA - Killed in Action


End file.
